I know a lot of my fans were disappointed when Testor's plans to produce various ranges of ICE & FIRE miniatures and collectibles came to... well, very little. Testor's managed to release only one set in two years, and had major breakage problems trying to ship it. Many other figures were designed, sculpted, even cast, but never released. We all had great intentions, but for various complex reasons things just did not work out.

I am hoping that the second time will prove the charm. I've got a new deal in place, this time with DARK SWORD MINIATURES, who will be showing the first batch of figures at GenCon. Dark Sword is a much smaller outfit than Testor's... but that's good, I think. It means this new range of figures is very important to the company. At Testor's, the project almost seemed like an afterthought, and often got forgotten.

I won't natter about the miniatures here, however. Check out the story on my news page for more details, and follow to link to Dark Sword's own website to see pictures of the first set of minis.

I'd love to hear your thoughts about the miniatures, Tom Meier, Dark Sword, what characters you'd like to see next, etc. Feel free to comment.

I am, however, getting bloody sick of all the off-topic comments, and the trolls who use any LJ post of mine, regardless of subject, as another excuse to slam me about DANCE being late. I can't stop you from posting such comments, of course... but I can and will remove 'em, and ban the posters. LJ makes that pretty easy, I'm glad to say. And life is too short to deal with trolls.

However, if you're not a painter yourself, there are dozens of fine "hired brushes" out there that you can hire to paint your miniatures for you. I have used many of them myself to add to my collection of toy knights. Google Noel Meyer, Roger O'Dell, Pictor Studio, Blue Table Painting, WarPaint Studio. Those are just a few of the painters I've used myself, and they all do wonderful work.

What game and where? This will be my first year at Gen Con and I'm afraid I'm going to get swallowed by the con. I'd really like to have an idea of things to look for rather than wandering around aimlessly in the dealers room for four days. (Though I probably will dedicate at least a day to just that)

I don't normally follow your LJ (even though I love the books!), as my wife is more of the dedicated fan, but I have collected and painted miniatures since the 80s. Tom Meier is a great choice. Going with a small mini-producer is also a good call. I do not understand the previous choice of Testors since this isn't really what they do well or what their focus is, but am so glad to see these coming out from a company with the dedication and love for the hobby to do them justice! :D

For what it's worth - I'm glad that you are taking the time you need on the book. Too often, I think, we worry more about deadlines than we do about quality. I'm not saying that deadlines aren't good in an overall sense, but unlike many these days, I prefer quality and if that means a deadline gets missed, so be it.

Of all the words I have seen penned by your quill. That has to be simply the most profound statement I have seen come from the ink you lay upon parchment.

I would bust out in laughter if you manage to somehow to find a way to edit that into Dance. A touche' to those of us who take the time to read your enlightening Not Blogs. Even more, it deserves to have a place of honor as your motto on the official website main page.

I'm really liking what I see so far, and am very much looking forward to these. Jon Snow looks fabulous - I'm so impressed with the detail they can get in these. I'd love to see some of the Starks with their wolves, and a Dany with her dragons (maybe on a throne?).

Re: Trolls - one way you could help with that is to create a community and then be the sole poster, but appoint a few trusty moderators who could then delete those comments for you, and ban people. It's an extra step, but it might take some of the effort off.

I'd love to see Dany with the infant dragons, or one of the direwolves. Or...well, actually, one pose I'd really like to see in miniature would be Prince Oberyn in battle, mounted, spear in hand. I think his more elegant spearfighting style would look better in a static pose than a hack-and-slash sword style; then again, I'm not a miniature sculptor, so...